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San Francisco Food Tour

These Bay Area restaurants emphasize value, warmth, and comfort.

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Rating: 5 out of 5 by EveryTrail members

Difficulty: Easy

Duration: Multiple days

Overview :
Within a relatively compact 40 square miles one can find showy Victorian manses and elegant Art Deco skyscrapers; the sprawling,... more » verdant oasis of Golden Gate Park, along with some shockingly good museums; and funky boho bastions filled with independent bookstores and galleries, free-trade coffee shops, and indie-designer ateliers. Oh, and restaurants where everyone's wearing jeans (if that)—but where the food, much of it made with sustainable, local ingredients, is simply sublime. less «

Tips:
September and October. The summer fog has cleared, the nights are as warm as they ever get, and the winter rains haven’t started.... more » April and May are sunny, too, though a bit cooler. less «

Points of Interest

What could be better than waking up to the startlingly fragrant coffee made from freshly roasted single-origin beans? This airy, industrial-chic place is home to the famous halogen-powered $20,000 Japanese coffee siphon (the only one of its kind in North America); the brewing process has all the ritualistic reverence of a Kyoto tea ceremony.... More Choose one of the three daily roasts with your farm-fresh poached eggs on Acme Bread Company toast.

Chef-owner Brenda Buenviaje calls on her New Orleans roots to create refined, Creole-influenced fare at her namesake French soul food restaurant. The beignet, a deep-fried pastry similar to a doughnut, is one of her specialties, with varieties including chocolate, apple, or crawfish. Customers fill the Civic Center Plaza diner (expanded in 2011 to... More accommodate the crowds) for budget-friendly staples like gumbo or shrimp and grits with spicy bacon gravy. Brunch is served Saturdays and Sundays; choices include a beignet sampler, gumbo, and traditional Benedicts or Southern-style versions with fried chicken or catfish.

Dynamo Donut & Coffee serves an array of handmade cake-like donuts at its highly trafficked counter, prominently located on 24th Street, one of the main drags of the Mission District. Founded by well-traveled pastry chef Sara Spearin, Dynamo uses organic and local ingredients to produce distinctive flavors like vanilla bean, banana de leche,... More chocolate rose geranium hazelnut, and caramel de sel, all of which have Dynamo’s characteristic "cakiness."The choices rotate, but wildly popular bacon donuts (like Dynamo’s signature maple apple bacon) are available daily.

Address:
2760 24th St.
San Francisco, California
United States

Phone:
(415) 920-1978Less

4. La Mar, San Francisco

It doesn’t get prettier than the outdoor seats at La Mar, right on the water’s edge on the Embarcadero, with a view of the boats and the bay. This big, bold cebichería is the first American outpost by Gaston Acurio, the dynamic Peruvian über-chef determined to hook the planet on Andean chilies, tubers, and jazzy lime-soaked raw-fish... More concoctions. Who needs main courses when you can follow a cebiche sampler with fluffy cilantro-laced cheese tamales and attractively charred octopus skewers, all starters hearty enough for a meal?

This wildly popular dining venue at the new California Academy of Sciences, in Golden Gate Park (sister restaurant to the neighboring Academy Café), is a shrine to sustainable agriculture, courtesy of local food heroes and good-pal chefs Charles Phan (Slanted Door) and Loretta Keller (Coco500). The handsome subterranean space—yes, that’s... More live moss on the wall—has delicious ricotta cavatelli and succulent lamb kefta on its crowd-pleasing Cal-Med menu. Try not to fret the $25 museum admission to lunch here: surely you want to see the eco-sleek sci-fi setting that starchitect Renzo Piano has created for the designer butterflies and lizards. Lunch for two $65.

Address:
55 Music Concourse Dr.
San Francisco, California
United States

Don’t worry if you draw near to The Sentinel and there’s a line, it generally moves quickly and your turn to order will be up before you know it. This takeout place on New Montgomery Street in the SoMa (South of Market) neighborhood serves up breakfast and lunch from its counter between folding wood doors and underneath a blue awning with cigar... More advertising signs below. The Sentinel is known for the sandwiches created by Chef Dennis Leary and his crew, particularly the corned beef with Russian dressing.

Address:
35 New Montgomery St.
San Francisco, California
United States

Neighborhood swells wash down grilled bavette steak and sinful duck fat-fried potatoes with big-ticket Cabs with prerecession abandon at this masculine chocolate-colored boîte in Presidio Heights. Among the many reasons to love it are a deep, serious Riesling list; chef Mark Sullivan’s awesome house-made charcuterie; and his knack for... More sneaking hyper-boutique bitterish greens even into meatier dishes like bacon-bolstered sweetbreads lyonnaise. Allowing guests to order the full affordable bar menu—great burgers and boudin blanc—in the fancy main room is a welcome populist gesture.

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